Exploring land recently released by ice (geologically speaking)

Monthly Archives: April 2011

Wake up and end your winter slumber. That’s what I want to tell the Fish Creek Woods but only fools talk to trees. That’s how Aki sees it. We find a few blue berries willing to send out a spray or two of blossoms but everything else is wrapped up tight.

The soft woods trees and other deciduous plants can’t gamble with nature. Leafing out now and a killing frost could deny them a chance to grow in the summer sun. Their reticence extends famine time for the bear and deer who need some green growth now. Both are around, leaving tracks in creek side gravel. Aki leads me to the bear’s bedding area. Nowhere are the clipped off shoots of beach grass to give evidence of the bear’s spring feed.

There is freedom of sight for Aki and I in this dormant wood. With the devil’s club restrained she owns the low spaces and runs freely under downed trees. For me, this time without leaves allows appreciation of shapes and running water and, ironically, the force of life. Now I can see unimpeded all the young evergreens sucking life from decaying nursery logs. Nothing is wasted here. I can also see reminders of the salmon of summer that will fill this stream with their dying bodies and these trees with eagles and bears. Eagle feathers are scattered along the trail like bread crumbs. Eagle scat and down cover the ground near the spawning grounds.

The West Glacier trail starts on ground too new to be interesting on any but the sunniest day. We have such a day and enjoy patterns of light and dark cast by early morning light. The muddy portions of he trail froze hard last night and have yet to thaw. A thin skim of ice covers the ponds that will soon release clouds of mosquitos to prey on this summer cruise ship tourists. It is good to take this trail now before summer with its guided ecotours, bugs, and helicopters.

The main trail is one of frustration. Even now, while the trees are still bare we only get filtered views of the glacier. After a couple miles of flat walking we climb far above the glacier ice. From here the glacier becomes a frozen river sending up rapids of ice where it flows over granite domes and ridges. A rough trail takes you to the glacial ice but Aki and I keep climbing toward the summit of Mt. McGinnis.

A shattering marmot whistle takes me by surprise and I realize that I’ve dropped into the hiking trance, partly induced by the constant low frequency drumming of grouse. After that I look up more and see things like a grouse and these mountain goats grazing in the sun. I also see the lines carved into hard rock by the glacier and car sized boulders dropped here and there by retreating ice.

We stop where an overhanging rock offers a rare unimpeded view of ice. I sit facing the glacier. Aki faces down the trail, leaning against me, enjoying the warmth of the rock. I reach over and rub her ears. She licks my hand once in thanksgiving. Then we return to the trail.

We returned to higher country on this sunny, warm day. It feels like spring, even while snow shoeing on this high ridge. Aki brought along the other human who feeds her and they are playing catch with her precious frisbee as we move over open ground surrounded by mountains.

Many old souls live here. In the meadow ancient but stunted mountain hemlocks stand alone, sculpted by wind to Bonsai perfection. They cling to ground passed over by others and survive. We pass the twisted remains of others that have not.

Moving into a surprisingly thick spruce forest we find thick but misshaped trees with twisted trunks. Some are split from root to crown. Parallel ladders of dead branches climb up the sides of others. Their tenacity would suggest desperate pride in a human but trees lack such complexity. They only want to live where their seed fell.

Stopping near the forest edge we perch to eat lunch on a twisted spruce that corkscrews horizontally towards the sun. Aki alternatively begs for cheese and for someone to throw her frisbee. When neither happens she shivers, not for dramatic effect but because constant movement keeps her warm.

Not counting Douglas Island and city streets, Juneau has one 45 mile long road. Weirdness tends to collect at both ends. Today Aki and I try the root ridden trail to Dupont that starts at the road’s southern end.

We pass first through a forest of oversized alders and meet a gentle soul collecting wild greens to go with his lentil dinner. He’s old, grey but erect with a buffalo plain shirt that’s pockets are stuffed with the morning harvest. Over a crisp wild cucumber shoot he has just handed me I give him a measuring eye. He could be handing me death in wild form for some look alike plants can kill. Seeing only wisdom and kindness I eat the shoot and everything else he hands me for this time of year wild foods taste fresh and full of summer’s promise.

The trail goes native after we leave behind the kind gatherer. Winter rains have washed trees root bare so they curl like arthritic hands over the steep hill side. Whole trees, still attached to their upturned roots block the trail as if tipped over by a petulant giant.

After passing though some softer land decorated by emerging skunk cabbage, we break onto the beach at Dupont where they stored bombs during the Second World War. Here I try to catch some Dolly Varden Char. Aki only wants to chase her frisbee, She loses it while washing it in the sea. Her angst rises as it floats away from the beach until I snag it with a salmon fry fly. It‘s all I catch.